Sometimes the same old punishments can get become less effective than they used to be. For that reason, we need to come up with creative punishments for our high school students that they have never experienced before.
Especially around that age, conventional punishments just don’t seem to do the trick. The high school years are known for rebellion and in many cases, only creative punishments can get these teens to behave.
The emotions and hormones are running high so it is not a surprise that they are acting up but it is our job as parents and educators to keep their behavior under control so they can learn as much as they can in these critical years. Unfortunately, it is quite common to see high school students fall into a spiral of misbehavior that follows them into adulthood.
Also, with college just around the corner, if a student spends too much time slacking off, it could follow them for many years to come.
9 Creative Punishments for High School Students
If you are looking to discipline your high school student in a creative way, check out these punishments.
1. Adding onto their List of Chores
Rather than taking something away when they misbehave, add something they do not want, like more chores. Whenever my high school junior forgets to do the dishes, he has to clean a room in the house.
Some mornings I’ll wake him up from school and tell him he forgot to wash the dishes and I see the annoyance in his eyes. Without even saying anything he knows that he now needs to clean one of the rooms when he gets back from school.
Kids love being lazy so they will do quite a bit to avoid doing more chores.
You can also use this method as a deterrent rather than a punishment. For example, my son knows that every time he forgets to do the dishes, he has to clean a room. Ever since I implemented this rule, he’s only forgotten to do the dishes twice. Before that, he would forget a few times a week.
2. Talking to a Relative on the Phone
If you remember being a kid, you remember being forced to talk to relatives on the phone. It sucked and we never had anything to really talk about, it was just the same questions. I come up with these by simply thinking about the things I hated to do as a kid and now I make my kid do them whenever he needs to be disciplined.
If your child comes home with bad grades, I guarantee a few awkward conversations with the aunt they haven’t seen in 6 years will do the trick
3. Making Them Walk Home From School
Obviously this only works if you live a reasonable distance from their school. For most students having a ride home and to school is a luxury, not a necessity.
If they act up, just tell them they are going to have to walk home for a week. You get to stay home and they get to become more active for the week. Plus they are less like to repeat the offense because no one at their age wants to go on a long walk after a long day of school.
Make sure they only have to walk back from school because if you make them walk to school, I guarantee you they will be late every single day to first period.
4. Hold Hands with Siblings if they Fight
This next punishment is great if your children have siblings. We all know siblings that never get along and can sometimes turn arguments into fights.
A great solution for that would be to make the siblings hold hands for 5 minutes and they have to say nice things to each other. This will make them hate it at the moment but it works great because they will think twice next time about fighting each other.
It also tricks the minds of both siblings because the more you say a certain thing, the more the mind believes it so when all these kind words are flowing from the high schooler, it will trick the brains of the high schooler and the sibling into believing what they are saying and they will turn that hate into love.
5. Laundry
Another punishment that will surely make any high school student rethink doing a bad act would be doing the laundry process from the beginning till the end. When I say beginning till the end, that means they have to do all the steps from gathering all the dirty clothes from the family to folding the clean laundry once it comes out.
Many parents just made their kids fold the laundry but this punishment will require them to do all the other steps also.
6. Shower the Dog
If you have a pet dog, this punishment will work well.
Having a pet can be an amazing experience but as we all know, there comes a time where they become dirty and will have to take a bath. Who is a better candidate to give the dog a shower than a teenager that has committed a bad act.
Showering the dog is a punishment that many people had to go through and it is not a fun task. As the dog shakes the water off and it splashes you, it reminds you of the act you committed and it will make you regret doing it.
7. Writing Standards
This punishment was left back in middle school but we are bringing it back because it was one of the worst feelings anyone had to go through when they were at school. It instantly made anyone writing standards regret making the decision they made so this is why it is a perfect creative punishment for highschool students.
You would have them write “I will not …(thing that they did wrong) again” for however many times you see it is fit for them.
Many people might think that this punismehnt should be for younger kids but it does not matter. Because whether you are 10 or 40 years of age, writing is the last thing anyone wants to do especially if it is a punishment.
The high schooler will waste time writing it and their hands will feel tired but at the end of the day, the whole point is for them to regret their decision.
8. Washing the Cars
Another great punishment would be washing the cars of the family. Since the high school student feels like they can mess around and act up, well they will also have to mess around with some soap and water to clean the car.
Once the act is committed, the high schooler should be rolling up his sleeves and getting the bucket ready because he will have to do some cleaning for the acts he committed.
If there is no car available to wash, they can clean a room in the house.
9. Community Service
The next punishment will serve a good deed because the high schooler will get to help out the community in one way or another. Since there needs to be a balance in life and the high schooler already committed the bad, they now have to commit the good and what better way to do that than by doing community service.
There are many services to do around the community like picking up trash or helping at a shelter.
Final Thought
There are many creative punishments out there for high school students who commit wrong acts. It is up to the parent or guardian to decide what punishment seems fit for what they have done.
The whole point of setting up a creative punishment would be to surprise them with something new because if they are given the same punishment over and over, they will get used to it and it will not have an effect on them.
The goal is to actually make them regret their decision and to make them rethink of committing a wrong act the next time it presents itself. For more creative punishments for teenagers, click here.